Tilford said Wesbecker told him he wanted the guns for target practice.

In May, Wesbecker returned to Tilford`s and ordered an AK-47 assault rifle, again saying he wanted it for target practice. ``I said, `How do you like the MAC-11?` And he said, `I love it,` `` Tilford said.

``He seemed as normal as you and I.``

As it turned out, Wesbecker was quietly building an arsenal, a passel of military-style weapons to be used in a shooting barrage Thursday morning in downtown Louisville in which he killed seven people, wounded 13 and killed himself at the Standard Gravure printing plant. Three of the injured were in critical condition Friday.

Despite renewed demands to curb sales of assault weapons in the wake of the Louisville bloodbath, President Bush on Friday repeated his opposition to tougher gun laws and rejected again a federal ban on the weapons. America is bound to have such murderous incidents as long as there are deranged people, Bush said.

Louisville police, meanwhile, reviewed the federal gun records and witness interviews Friday, and a picture emerged of Wesbecker and the ease with which he acquired his weapons.

Wesbecker, 47, had been treated for mental problems by private physicians after being placed on disability leave from Standard Gravure, according to Louisville Police Chief Richard Dotson.

Because the treatment was private and voluntary, there was no record for either police or gun dealers, and in any event there would be no restriction on him buying weapons, local and federal officials said. Also, there is no waiting period for buying handguns in Kentucky, Dotson said.

``I don`t know in reality if you could stop the Wesbeckers who are treated by private physicians in private hospitals,`` said Bill Curley, head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office in Louisville.

Wesbecker`s co-workers told police the killer harbored a grudge against Standard Gravure because he thought job-related stress triggered the disability. They said that more than once he said he would exact revenge.

But neither his threats of revenge nor his history of treatment by private physicians would have barred Wesbecker from buying the weapons from Tilford.

When Wesbecker bought his MAC-11s and AK-47, he filled out a federal form, answering ``no``-correctly-to questions about prior convictions, drug use or involuntary commitment to a mental facility.

Curley said the form is virtually useless in preventing someone such as Wesbecker from buying a gun.

Anyone, he said, could simply lie on the form about any answer; the gun dealer has no way of checking the truth and the only way a purchaser faces any additional criminal charges for lying is if police arrest him on some other charge.

The form does help police trace weapons. In this case, Curley and his agents were able to determine quickly where and when Wesbecker had bought most of his weapons.

He bought a SIG-Sauer semiautomatic pistol Aug. 26, 1988, in Louisville, the two MAC-11s in February, the AK-47 in May. His other gun, a .38 caliber revolver, was sold by a Memphis gun dealer that is no longer in business.

Tilford said he also had filed a disclosure with the bureau about Wesbecker`s multiple gun purchase-another federal requirement-but that is useful to the agency only if the purchaser is charged with some crime.

The task of investigating gun owners is daunting, Curley said. ``There are 5,200 licensed gun dealers in the state of Kentucky alone,`` he said.

In Kentucky, there is no waiting period for buying handguns, Dotson said. He said the state legislature recently passed a law prohibiting cities from passing gun laws.